Mid range archer

[beskargam]

alrighty, i have found ways to make good short range archers (swift hunter), and ways to make effective long range archers (volley style/craigtop archers...ect) but can anyone help me make a reliable mid range archer (preferably ranger based) i mostly need help figuring out how to do effective damage at 60-150 feet away. any ideas thoughts or suggestions?

[Piggy Knowles]

I know you mentioned preferring a ranger, but I really like bards for that range. Inspire Courage and Dragonfire Inspiration, along with Knowledge Devotion, keep you up with decent damage, and you've got some good spellcasting backup as well.

You can even toss in two levels of arcane archer, if you're playing an elf - it's not a bad dip, and it can be fun to imbue spells like Dissonant Chant, Ironthunder Horn, Fear or Silence.

If you want to definitely stick with ranger, Ranger 9/Bard 2/Fochlucan Lyrist 9 works, especially if you can use the Mystic Ranger variant.

Chameleons also make excellent mid-range archers, I've found.

[Eldariel]

alrighty, i have found ways to make good short range archers (swift hunter), and ways to make effective long range archers (volley style/craigtop archers...ect) but can anyone help me make a reliable mid range archer (preferably ranger based) i mostly need help figuring out how to do effective damage at 60-150 feet away. any ideas thoughts or suggestions?

Spells help. Other than that, the same tools that work in extreme ranges work at mid ranges; you just don't need to use resources to increase your range. Just use:
- Knowledge Devotion
- Ranged Weapon Mastery (Fighter 4 or Pious Templar 3 dips get you the prerequisites)
- Extra Attacks (Barbarian 1 has Whirling Frenzy, Targetteer Fighter has Arrow Storm, Warblade has Dancing Mongoose/Raging Mongoose/Time Stands Still)
- Weapon properties & magical arrows

Really, all you have to work with are static damage increases. So get a lot of them. Extra attacks especially are amazing damage multipliers. I personally use Ranger 2/Fighter 1/Barbarian 1/Warblade 6/Eternal Blade 10 for most of my long range archer needs; it's got everything you could want in skills, RWM, KDev, all the extra attacks & great utility from maneuvers. You don't have too much Ranger but you still have Ranger skills and the basics down.

[tyckspoon]

Spells help. Other than that, the same tools that work in extreme ranges work at mid ranges; you just don't need to use resources to increase your range. Just use:


An extremely long range archer has the luxury of striking from outside almost everybody's effective ability to counter. They don't necessarily need very high damage because they can safely keep shooting until it works. Mid range.. I can see being a problem; you don't have the easy damage output of point-blank shooting, but you're close enough to get put down by spells or mobile melee opponents, so I can see having to optimize differently.

[Eldariel]

An extremely long range archer has the luxury of striking from outside almost everybody's effective ability to counter. They don't necessarily need very high damage because they can safely keep shooting until it works. Mid range.. I can see being a problem; you don't have the easy damage output of point-blank shooting, but you're close enough to get put down by spells or mobile melee opponents, so I can see having to optimize differently.

Well, swift action movement (ToB, Travel Devotion, 10' Steps, etc.) go up in value at mid range; you can full attack and put more distance between you and the target (or even an object). But given good builds include those anyways, I wouldn't really change much.

Archery does do decent damage. You get Rapid Shot early; 2d8+6 x2 is quite competitive on the first levels. Really, Archery works like TWF on these ranges; you get more attacks but less damage than two-handers so you focus on on-hit abilities. Of course, the biggest advantage archery has is that all your attacks are done with one mainhand weapon so it's cheaper to enchant and build off of.